Riverhawks swoop up the Bombers - By Luke Westerfield

    TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19th, 2023: Before the Richland girls go on break later this week, they knew they would have their hands full coming into their Tuesday matchup Vs the preseason conference favorite Chiawana Riverhawks. Headlined by a couple of towering Division One prospects in the likes of Six-Foot-Three forward Malia Rudd, who has ten offers from Division One schools, most notable being Washington State, Boise State, and the University of Hawaii, Rudd has also had an eventful high school career, to say the least being named on to the 1st team all-conference list both of the past two years as well as co-MVP with Richland’s Kylee Fox last season. Kaia Foster is another towering prospect for the Riverhawks. Standing at a matching Six-Foot-Three, Foster has several offers as well from Fresno State, Tulsa, University of Hawaii, Charleston, and Eastern Washington and was a member of the 2nd team all-conference, which is nothing to scoff at considering the amount of talent in the conference last year with Kylee Fox, Nikole Thomas, and Haylee Johnson to name a few.

Photo: Metcalf Media (@metcalfmedia_)

    Both teams had a sluggish start in the first quarter, with the first basket not coming until roughly the six-minute mark after Makenzie Schultz scored off a Macie Milum rebound to an assist. Then, Kaya Chang beat the defense back after a Malia Rudd post up that she had fallen off of the glass, getting around Rudd with a nifty lift-fake for the Girl’s second score of the night. Schultz would then score a quick put back and-one but would unfortunately not convert from the charity stripe; this would be the Lady Bomber’s last points until 3:36 in the second quarter, where Schultz would end the seven-minute and thirty-seven-second dry spell hitting her first of her two free throws but missing long on the second despite the fluid release and high arc she had on her shot. Before the conclusion of the first half, they would convert two more times, both coming from sophomore guard Kylee Kukes, who converted a layup over Chiawana’s Marisel Conteras as well as hitting a buzzer-beating one-legged bank Three pointer from the wing, all while drifting to the right. The story of the first half was that our girls could somewhat quell the Riverhawks on the defensive side of the court, holding them to a respectable 36 points. Still, they could not convert on offense, shooting 6/24 from the field. A contributing factor to this was their inability to penetrate the lane for easy baskets or draw shooting fouls, making the girls throw up 10 three-pointers, meaning almost half of our shot attempts came from three-point land, only making the miracle buzzer-beater throw-up by Kukes. On the Chiawana side, they seemed to be on cruise control, never being too sped up and rarely failing to wrestle their way into their spots, despite they only shot a mediocre 45.2% from the field as a team and a well below average 28.6% from three. 

Photo: Metcalf Media (@metcalfmedia_)

    In the third, the girls outscored Chiawana 19-18, a feat they accomplished only once this game and was their only quarter where they scored double-digit points, but the Riverhawks would respond by doubling the girls' 4th quarter total 16-8. Throughout the game, the constant separator between the two teams was inside in scoring and rebounding. As a team, Chiawana shot 27/63 (42.86 TFG%) in total but converted 52.6% (20/38) of their shots from inside out, scoring our girls in the paint 26 to 12. In contrast, the Lady Bombers shot 9/28 inside the arc, got outrebounded 48 to 33, and allowed seven more turnovers than their opponent (21-14), which they capitalized on, accounting for 21 of Chiawana’s 70 points. 

    Looking ahead, the Girls will head to Lewiston, Idaho, for a tournament after the holiday break. I asked Head Coach Amy Westerfield what her team needs to do to succeed in these upcoming games, and she replied, “We have to get tougher moving forward.” She called the upcoming tournament “A good opportunity to work on some things.” She is also aware that the competition level in the MCC will not drop when they return to conference play with upcoming marquee matchups versus Kamiakin and Kennewick.